The county Board of Supervisors today will consider awarding a no-bid contract to a charity whose governing board includes the county’s top administrator and two department heads.

The grant money for the contract comes from a state commission on which the charity’s CEO sits.

The contract would be the latest noncompetitive agreement between San Diego County and The Children’s Initiative, a Pacific Beach nonprofit. Walt Ekard, the county’s chief administrator officer and a member of the nonprofit’s board, recommended the contract to the supervisors.

The Children’s Initiative’s director, Sandra McBrayer, serves on two commissions — one at the county level and one at the state — that have sent money to the county government.

Officials say there is no link between money that flows from the county to McBrayer’s charity and money that flows to the county from the boards McBrayer sits on.

“I’m proud of my partnerships,” McBrayer said. “It allows us to serve the kids of San Diego better.”

But the circle of connections concerns some government watchdogs.

“We need to avoid the opportunity for corruption, the appearance of corruption and anything that raises these immediate questions,” said Simon Mayeski of California Common Cause’s San Diego chapter. “It’s something that shouldn’t happen.”

Earlier no-bid deals with McBrayer’s charity have been extended for years and added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the charity’s income, according to documents obtained under the California Public Records Act.

The officials who serve on The Children’s Initiative board said that the nonprofit is best suited to deliver the services and that there is no conflict because their charity work is unpaid. A legal opinion from the county’s lawyer backed them up.

Today, county supervisors are being asked to accept $100,000 from the state Corrections Standards Authority, a 19-member panel that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars to California counties.

McBrayer sits on the state board, which awarded the grant to San Diego County. The $100,000 would go to the Probation Department, which plans to use the funds for an exclusive effort with The Children’s Initiative to lower the number of minority youths entering the juvenile justice system.

Like Ekard, county Chief Probation Officer Mack Jenkins is on the charity’s board of directors. The county officials’ link was disclosed in paperwork recommending the charity for the work.

McBrayer said that as a member of the Corrections Standards Authority, she abstains from any vote when considering grants to San Diego County — an extra step that is not required under the law.

“For me it’s perception,” she said. “I don’t want it to be perceived that I’m serving on a board and San Diego is getting preferential treatment.”

Several contracts eventually awarded to The Children’s Initiative were first posted on a county Web site announcing the projects, McBrayer said. Those postings sought information from potential bidders, rather than bids for specific services.

McBrayer is a longtime advocate for young people, especially poor children at risk of getting into trouble.

During the 1980s, she founded one of the first schools in the country for homeless students and served as head teacher in what is now known as Monarch High School in downtown San Diego.